Recommended Posts

My son has a 3 year old NOVATECH NSPIRE 2430 15.6" laptop with an i5 2430M processor, 4GB DDR3 memory and NVIDIA GT 555 mobile graphics. His most demanding use of the laptop by far is FM14; otherwise it is university coursework, web browsing and streaming video. In FM14 he likes to keep the amount of countries he plays on quite low - usually it's just one - and has graphics set on High. He finds performance on his laptop OK, but he finds it runs very hot and is becoming unstable even running on a "cooler-pad" with a USB driven fan.

I'd like to get him a new laptop for his 21st and have a budget of £650. It doesn't seem necessary to spend £650 do get a laptop to do the job now, but I would like to get something which will last as long as possible. It does need to be a laptop because he moves it between home and university etc, but light weight and long battery life are not priorities as it is usually at a desk and connected to the mains. He needs 500GB storage, but no more than that. From this thread I have learnt that I should get the best possible processor, and that pcspecialist offer good value, but I am uncertain about the relative priorities of other components. 13.3" screen vs 15.6" (my son does not have a preference)? 1366x768 or 1920x1080 resolution? 8GB, 12Gb or 16GB?

Above all, I'd like to choose something that minimised the chances of the new laptop overheating.

Anyway, if I maximise processor and stick to 8GB and 1366x768 I can get the spec below for £651 at pcspecialist.co.uk. I would be grateful for any views on the specs below, and on other options from pcspecialist or elsewhere. In essence, what is the best way to spend £651 (or less!) given the requirements above.

Cosmos II 15.6" Matte HD LED 16:9 Widescreen (1366x768)

8GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)

Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB

NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 840M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)

ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND

Adding 8GB would cost a further £88.

i5-4340M and i7-4610M which both benchmark less well than i7-4710MQ cost more. To save money on processor, I'd have to go to i5-4310M (£29 less than above if i5-4310M is swapped for i7-4710MQ) or i5-4210M (£65 less than above) but both are rated far below i7-4710MQ at notebookcheck.net (ranked 85 and 89 compared to 26 for i7-4710MQ).

Is Arctic Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound (sounds wonderful) worth the extra £9 it costs? I am assuming it is given the comments I made about overheating, but I don't know.

Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread to date, and thanks in advance to any who can give me any further guidance on what to buy.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I recently got a new laptop with similar specs but with 8gb ram, it runs brilliantly for what i want. I can run 10-12 leagues at 5 star and processing times from day to day are minimal. The recommended quality of the graphics is high and runs without lag or jumps you could probably push it to very high. If you could get it up to 8gb ram i would really recommended it as i can jump in and out of football manager to browse the internet or change a podcast without a dip in performance at all so unless you can get an M processor for the same price or if you want to run more leagues than me I would say go for it Rhazmuz

0

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I recently got a new laptop with similar specs but with 8gb ram, it runs brilliantly for what i want. I can run 10-12 leagues at 5 star and processing times from day to day are minimal. The recommended quality of the graphics is high and runs without lag or jumps you could probably push it to very high. If you could get it up to 8gb ram i would really recommended it as i can jump in and out of football manager to browse the internet or change a podcast without a dip in performance at all so unless you can get an M processor for the same price or if you want to run more leagues than me I would say go for it Rhazmuz

Cheers mate It does come with 8 gb ram, so I guess I will be golden

0

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I asked pcspecialist what they'd suggest for FM14. I gave them the same story I posted here, and said my budget was £650. They proposed the config below for £591. I'd be very grateful for any views on this config, and on the one I originally suggested above for £651.

Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte HD LED 16:9 Widescreen (1366x768)

Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4710MQ (2.50GHz) 6MB

4GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 4GB)

NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 840M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)

Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING

Think I'd go back to 8GB of memory, but otherwise looks pretty reasonable.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Alright guys my budget is anything under $1000, I need a laptop that will run FM14 and 15 smooth as silk. I understand that for FM the processor the most important component and an SSD really helps. buying a laptop and an separate SSD to upgrade it later, but that still needs to be under $100. I've been searching for days now.

0

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

i have noticed laptops in the 500-600 range seem to be the most popular price range for anyone buying a new LT for FM15 . My price range is a bit lower am looking to spend 300-400 on mine. looking to play at a decent pace 3-5 leagues , running 3d graphics in basic detail.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Alright guys my budget is anything under $1000, I need a laptop that will run FM14 and 15 smooth as silk. I understand that for FM the processor the most important component and an SSD really helps. buying a laptop and an separate SSD to upgrade it later, but that still needs to be under $100. I've been searching for days now.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

i have noticed laptops in the 500-600 range seem to be the most popular price range for anyone buying a new LT for FM15 . My price range is a bit lower am looking to spend 300-400 on mine. looking to play at a decent pace 3-5 leagues , running 3d graphics in basic detail.

which from a quick search, is available in other locations around the UK (currys as an example, for the same price)

edit: @grantem - the first one you posted would be better personally

the 8GB ram would be much nicer for uni coursework [as a personal preference], not sure what he studies

the cooling paste would be pretty unneccesary

you could also whack the processor down to an i5 (wouldn't make that much difference), and increase the graphics card if he plays other games (more graphically demanding ones than FM, which is most currently on the market)

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Looking to get a laptop which will do me well for a few years and run FM smoothly. Roughly play with a large database with just the popular European countries loaded. Not necessarily all the leagues. Tend to have about 35,000 players loaded.

I've made this on PC specialist. Wanted to know what people thought or if it could be improved or anywhere where I am wasting money.

Share on other sites

If you need more storage get an external drive - or invest in cloud storage, which in my opinion is fantastic. If you have a upload limit on your data plan with your internet provider then it's not for you.

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Can anyone help me ? looking at something in the price range of £600 but will push to £750 if the laptop is worth it. i'm in the uk and want to run 3g Graphics, leagues not so important as long as i can play with 4 uk leagues but more leagues will be nice. thanks guys

I'm looking for a laptop for fm15 and general use max £650. I do like to load around 75-80 thousand players at a time to make my save as realistic as possible. With my current PC that is certainly possible but only gives me 1 and a half star game speed which if im going for a long save becomes quite annoying. Just tell me which or if any of these 3 are good enough

I'm looking for a laptop for fm15 and general use max £650. I do like to load around 75-80 thousand players at a time to make my save as realistic as possible. With my current PC that is certainly possible but only gives me 1 and a half star game speed which if im going for a long save becomes quite annoying. Just tell me which or if any of these 3 are good enough

for what i'm looking for.

The processors in two of those (third one won't open) are 17 4xxx u - the "U" stands for ultralow power and the processor won't run as fast as others, like a M, MX or MQ, HQ - etc.

This would be better - the 8gb SSD drive is a bit of a joke, windows 7 requires 16gb of space to install so your operating system will be on the other drive.

But the SSD would be good for saving your FM games to - faster load and save times

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Hi, I have a question to ask. I want to buy a new laptop and I'm looking at the new laptop/tablet hybrids. I got my eye on the Yoga Pro 3 from Lenovo, so my question is how will the new FM run on the new Intel Core M processors and HD5300 graphics? I want to play as many leagues as possible with the biggest database option Would that be a good choice? Or maybe the i7 Surface Pro 3? I want something light that is easy to carry around, while still having enough power to play FM. Any thoughts?

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

I might be asking for a lot of help here but I'm looking for a desktop PC. I already have a MacBook which I use as my everyday computer, so a desktop would be perfect as I don't need it to be portable or anything. I'm primarily going to be playing FM but I'll also look at PC games.

I have a budget of around £600-£800 for the PC, so anything 'top end' would be great.

0

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

At £600-800, it's easy to get yourself a nice high-end desktop. The best route, would be to buy the components and assemble it yourself, if you believe this is achievable (it's really not that difficult). However, if you prefer the route of a pre-built system, then http://www.chillblast.com seem to be a good place for pre-built systems.

An alternative is to buy a base unit, such as this. Then add a graphics card (£100-300, depending on what level you want) and most likely a new psu (£40-70) to support the new graphics card.

That processor is a power efficient ultralow processor too - similar to the i5 4xxxU that we talked about earlier.

Problem is that FM is a processing game, so your processor is going to be processing lots of information, when this happens the processor stats to heat up - and after that happens it tries to cool it self by 1.) a built in fan and 2.) By going at a slower clock speed to prevent overheating and damage.

You most likely will never reach 3.2ghz processing speed while playing FM, it will probably be around the 1.9-2.4ghz.

The one I linked to is better - but it's your choice.

0

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Hello guys i'm looking to build a PC for FM i need a CPU my budget is around £150 iwant to be able to play in long save games with alot of leagues at a fast speed i was looking at the i5 4460 right now any help would be great thanks

0

Share this post

Link to post

Share on other sites

Hello guys i'm looking to build a PC for FM i need a CPU my budget is around £150 iwant to be able to play in long save games with alot of leagues at a fast speed i was looking at the i5 4460 right now any help would be great thanks